Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise as belonging elsewhere.

I know. I know. I have other stories I could be working on (and I am, don't get me wrong), but this is something I've found interesting, so I took the idea and ran with it (much like I would with chocolate), so here is the result.

Enjoy!

Chapter One.

Naruto drifted in a sea of warm darkness, aware only of the Kyuubi's strong arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, clinging even as Naruto clung back.

He didn't particularly like the fox demon under normal circumstances, but he had been with Naruto since the day he was born, even when he hadn't been aware that the difference was an entirely separated being.

This darkness scared the blonde shinobi more than anything else in his entire life, and his fear was driven to an even higher level because the Kyuubi was just as scared.

They drifted for a long time, but since there wasn't any way to tell time, it could have been weeks, months or even years, but at some point, Kyuubi had shifted and pushed him back a little.

He had panicked until another smaller body had been drawn in and fitted between their chests.

The small figure latched onto them and clung. It took only a few moments for Naruto to realise that the figure was a small male child.

Once he became used to the presence to the child, Naruto returned back to his state of half-sleep.

(space)

The blond shinobi was jerked into full consciousness to a feeling not unlike being on a boat suddenly caught in a storm.

It was chaotic and the world was flashing between the familiar darkness and blinding light. The child clung to him and Kyuubi tightened his grip; there was a moment of vertigo and then nothing.

"…Did it work?"

Naruto twitched at the noise and became aware that, while it was dark, he was laying on a bed.

"He moved!" Someone to his left yipped. He thought it might have been a woman or a child.

A light pressure began in the back of his mind and he gasped softly as it reached a painful pitch.

"Naruto, sweetie, can you hear me?"

He made an incoherent sound in the back of his throat and passed out.

(space)

The first thing Naruto noticed was that he was in a mindscape, though he was pretty sure it wasn't his.

Above was a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds and below was ankle-deep water as far as the eye could see. Standing straight out of the water some fifty metres away was a truly massive oak tree with a swing swaying in the light breeze.

Then he caught sight of the hanging basket chair facing away from him and the long legs dangling from it, silhouette against the bright blue backdrop.

Naruto did the only thing he could do and walked towards the tree.

The young man, around nineteen or so, who was sitting in the basket chair was, without a doubt, the Kyuubi no Yoko. His hair was straight and fine, hanging down just past his slender shoulders in an auburn sheet, his red, slit-pupiled eyes peering through a curtain of hair. His face was long and vulpine, his eyes highly tilted and his neck was long and slender, his torso was slender too, lean and wiry, but long. The limbs were willowy and lightly muscled, fingers spidery and clawed and his feet long and bony. He was not beautiful by classic definition; rather he looked like a fox trying to be a human but failing by a margin.

Curled up and asleep in the Kyuubi's lap was a child of about eight with a mop of sunny blond hair hanging limply around his neck. The boy was bony and thin, wearing only a pale blue hospital gown. There was something familiar about the boy that Naruto couldn't put his finger on.

Seeing the confused look on the thirteen-year-old's face, the Kyuubi spoke softly in his harsh, rumbling voice. "The boy is an alternate you."

Naruto's frown deepened. "Alternate…me?"

"Yes." The demon murmured calmly. "He was born into a world where I never attacked. He grew up happily with a family until he was eight or so when an enemy ninja kidnapped him. The ANBU caught up with the enemy ninja, but rather than give the boy up, he instead tried to kill the boy so no one could have him. He has been in a coma for five years or so."

Naruto thought for a moment, frowning. He spoke hesitantly to the unusually calm fox demon. "Then what happened to me? How did we get here?"

The Kyuubi frowned. "You do not remember." It was not a question.

The thirteen year old shook his head in a negative.

The demon sighed. "It will return in time, but for now you should wake and do your best. There will be people you recognise and people you don't, some alive and some you know as dead. For instance," The demon regarded Naruto seriously with something like pity lurking in his eyes. "The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, is alive."

There was a sharp pain in his chest, created by a mix of anger, hurt and sorrow. He took a deep breath and repressed these emotions much as he had done before.

"What do I do?" He asked the fox, resigned and sad.

"Pretend amnesia." The Kyuubi said, surprisingly gentle. "Learn about this new reality, adapt and live your life as you wish. No one knows about me so you will not be unconditionally hated because you are a Jinchuuriki. Nothing can hold you back now."

That was probably the kindest thing the fox had ever said to him. The darkness had changed them both, maybe for the better.

"Wake up."

Naruto nodded and left.

(space)

Despite being awake and aware of his surroundings most of the time, for the first few days he could barely open his eyes; both because the muscles were too weak and because the natural light stung like a bitch with a flamethrower.

There was always someone in the room with him, be it a woman and children, a man, a boy or what Naruto assumed was a ninja guard of some kind.

By the time he finally got his eyes open, it was dark, night probably, with a small amount of light filtering under the curtain between the bed and the door.

He felt…really weak and tired.

Forcing that aside, he opened his eyes and looked around at the dark, blurry world. Noticing a flicker of black and white in what was probably the corner of the room, Naruto turned to it with great effort.

Staring for a few moments, he gradually made out the form of a small anbu leaning beside the window, arms folded and regarding the boy from behind a dragon mask. The hair framing the pale mask was a pure, inky black with a silvery sheen as opposed to the usual brown or blue hue, falling like a dark dream to the anbu's waist.

Naruto found himself captivated by the dark fall and the way the moonlight reflected from each individual strand as they floated in the night air coming through the partially open window.

So enamoured by the floating stands of darkness was he that it took the slight movement of the anbu and the turn of his dark head to notice there were four new people in the room, by the screen, and were staring at him.

There was a blond man whom Naruto recognised as the Yondaime Hokage, causing a flick of anger that was quickly squashed. Standing beside the Yondaime was a kunoichi with long hair the same vibrant shade of red as Gaara's and teary cat-green eyes. Held in the kunoichi's arms was a sleepy little girl of about four with strawberry blonde pigtails and sleepy turquoise eyes.

But it was the boy who stood on the other side of the Yondaime who caught and held Naruto's attention.

He was an exact replica of what Naruto had looked like before he was sent to the dark void with Kyuubi, albeit his hair was in a style much like the Yondaime's and he had less baby-fat on his cheeks, but aside from that the only thing he was missing were the scars on his cheeks.

He had barely a moment to take all this in before the kunoichi rushed forward.

…He didn't know how it happened, but there was a flare of chakra and suddenly he was twisting in the air and landing on all fours like a cat, back arched and limbs bending beneath him to take the force of his weight. He managed to hold himself up for a few seconds before the chakra flowing through his system faulted out, causing his muscles to weaken.

However, before Naruto could face-plant, there was a flash of black and white and the anbu was supporting his torso and lifting him.

The blond shinobi closed his eyes and slumped against the anbu's chest, breath coming in the quick, shallow panting of an exhausted child.

"How did he do that? The medics said he would be barely able to move when he woke." The woman said, sounding surprised and worried, as the anbu gently laid him back onto the bed and covered him up. "And why did he react like that? He-"

"Kushina, sweetheart, calm down. He was probably just startled." Interrupted a smooth male voice from beside the woman's…Kushina's.

He didn't know why, but the name was familiar to him, calling up a sense of lonely longing.

'… Kaasan…'

Came the murmur of a young voice in his mind, sounding like the speaker was talking in their sleep.

"Hokage-sama?" A soft, asexual voice spoke up from where Naruto thought the anbu was.

A soft snarl came from the direction of the small group, quickly followed by a soft, protesting mumble from the little girl.

"Be still, Takashi." The Yondaime spoke sharply, before addressing the anbu in what Naruto would later dub the 'Hokage Voice'. "What is it, Ryuu-san?"

"In cases of long term comas, it is not uncommon for the patient to experience temporary memory-loss." The anbu, identified by their codename 'Ryuu', spoke, seemingly unaware of the small amounts of Killer Intent leaking from Naruto's 'twin', presumably Takashi. "As to your other question, Namikaze-sama, there was a reflexive surge of chakra through his pathways when you startled him. It is an instinctive reaction conditioned into and utilised by weakened shinobi to escape perceived enemies. Some children born to shinobi parents have been known to use it instinctively."

Naruto truly did try to stay awake, but he was very tired from the excessive exercise and the shock to his system, so he was lulled into a darkness very different from the void, wrapped in the scent of the shade from trees and a mild, dried-flowers aroma.

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